Robert wanted to see it on Youtube, well how about Veoh? The video shown to Congress has been made public. Check out the chummy picture in 5:40.
Update
The Washington Post has published an interesting article theorizing why the administration has made public, seven months after Israeli jets destroyed the site, the findings. It also introduces an idea that the Bush administration (perhaps Dick Cheney, possessed by the ghost of John Bolton?) had less than an “honest” rationale. Per the article:
“But there are still some who suspect the announcement is the work of Vice President Cheney and other administration neocons who are trying to upset those negotiations — and further ratchet up tensions with Iran. “
Even some Congressman who viewed the evidence were skeptical. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, had this to say after his meeting with CIA briefers:
“I think many people believe that we were used today by the administration because - not because they felt they had to inform Congress because it was their legal obligation to do that, but because they had other agendas in mind. . . . I think what we saw in the committee today, I think the chairman would agree that the relationship that we need to get international issues done, foreign policy issues done, a trusting environment between the administration and Congress, does not exist.”
So, is the Bush administration genuinely concerned about proliferation and North Korea, or is this a clumsy neocon plot?
Sphere: Related Content
16 Comments
I would not be surprised if there were some (or ever more than some) truth to this, but considering the WMD/Al Qaeda justification for the war in Iraq, a healthy amount of skepticism should be expected. By the way, I’m not sure if it would be a case of Dick Cheney being possessed by Bolton, so much as Dick choosing to channel him.
The Bush-Cheney-Haliburton-Easter Bunny conspiracy theories are nonsense. Bruce Klingner sums this up best:
“The Bush administration was likely compelled to divulge intelligence information on North Korean support to a covert Syrian nuclear program in response to Congressional demands that hindered future progress in the Six Party Talks. Congress indicated it was unwilling to provide funding for continuation of disablement activities of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, a waiver of the Glenn amendment, nor agreement to remove North Korea from the terrorist list until it had received requisite intelligence briefings.”
If the Bush administration had their way none of this would have been made public because they were desperate to get any deal done with the North Koreans in order to mortgage this issue to the next president to deal with. The Senate Republican rebellion is what forced the administration to disclose the information.
Comparing this to Iraq is like comparing apples and oranges because none of the intel on Iraq was anything as good as what was presented to Congress in this briefing.
I see it the opposite way.
It is pretty clear that Bush is sold on Agreed Framework 2.0 as a way of showing he is willing to bend over backwards and suspend all disbelief in the hope of having peace in our time.
He is going to have to try to get Congress on board pretty soon to pay for all this and, considering that this information would have to get out at some point anyhow, the idea is to put it out now and make it ‘old news’ by the time the need for appropriations comes around.
On the other hand, we might be taking too much of a Korean centric view of this. Perhaps the real reason the video was released now is on the Syrian end.
The video isn’t loading for me, so I found another link…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlwAojuStyg
“Comparing this to Iraq is like comparing apples and oranges because none of the intel on Iraq was anything as good as what was presented to Congress in this briefing.”
They are apples and oranges, just like Al Qaeda and Saddam were, but that’s exactly my point. A lot of people aren’t going to believe/trust this kind of intel - no matter how legit it may be - precisely because the Iraq intel was spun like it was to produce the desired outcome of invasion.
I also think this probably has as much to do with Syria as North Korea. Also, I reckon the present American administration would be more than happy to leave the North Korean disablement/6 Party Talks stalemate for the next adminstration to deal with. (After all, the Bush inherited the post-94 limbo from the Clinton administration, so fair enough I guess.)
I wish, but no, way off the mark. I guess you haven’t been listening to Chris Hill backpedaling for the last few months.
As I was pretty much forced to admit, Bush II is in solid Legacy Mode, and is looking for a North Korea deal to mark it. Even if the admin has to ignore all NK’s transgressions, like this latest one (see UNSCR 1718), and not actually demanding a declaration of nuclear programs.
Pretty damn good intel. Gosh those Israeli Mossad are good!
That was incredibly stupid by North Korea. Bush’s main rationale for being so hardlined was concerns regarding proliferation. Those concerns, at least in my opinion, have been confirmed.
I wonder how the Chinese will take this bit of news? North Korea has got to look a little more wild and unpredictable to Beijing (as well as Russia) after this.
At risk of repeating everyone else here, the theory of a “clumsy neocon plot” is groundless and contradicted an actual news story in that well-known neocon mouthpiece, the Washington Post. The support you offer for it is not a news story, but a column by Dan Froomkin, who obviously knows nothing whatsoever about the subject matter. Intermittently, when North Korea hits Page One, remoras like Froomkin float by and cling just long enough to misinterpret the story. In another week, he’ll be back to paying it no mind at all.
Froomkin’s theory requires you to believe that our lame capon of a President is plotting a military adventure at the nadir of his political power and nine months from the end of his term. To believe that, you must have been holding your smoke since at least February 17, 2007. And from the looks of Froomkin, that’s at least as plausible a theory as any he’s offered.
In fact, some advocates of this deal in the Administration advocated releasing this information to get the issue behind them and move on with rallying support for lifting sanctions.
The State Department did everything in its power to keep this evidence from being leaked and screwing up its giveaway to Kim Jong Il. It was a few principled die-hards like Hoekstra and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who finally forced the Administration to come clean, after months of public and private demands:
Wright is a transparent lefty and no fan of Bush, but she’s honest enough to pass along what her sources are telling her. In light of this, to offer one example, I think you’re completely misinterpreting Hoekstra’s remarks, because you’ve taken his statement out of its broader context.
Maybe you’d care to reconsider your theory.
I learned a new word. You are the master of metaphors, Joshua.
I wonder why no one will accept the idea that Bush wanted a coup with some movement on the six-party talks while he was still in office. To this end, he was willing to allow the DPRK-Syrian issue to be “forgiven” as the start date was in 1997 before the most recent agreement — and therefore could be “overlooked.” These and more incentives were dangled in front of them, but Bush was stuck with his statement that the revelation by the DPRK would have to be “complete and verifiable.” All the DPRK had to do was come clean — but it refused.
Chris Hill was said to have persuaded the White House in 2007 that the six-party talks offered a realistic chance to accomplish a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-1953 Korean war. A peace deal of that magnitude would be a coup for Bush – but only if the North Koreans genuinely abandoned their nuclear programs. In Dec 2007, it was said that Chris Hill’s job was hanging in the balance if he didn’t deliver.
The Singapore agreement was the result — something so ludicrous that it insults people’s intelligence. It was sort of like the Banco Delta agreement where the US ended up with egg on its face after the North got its money — AND the promise that the US would open up its financial channels — the first step being removed from the terrorist list.
This time, I believe Bush said he had been yanked along enough. He and dear Ms. Rice have left poor Chris Hill out on a limb — and have started to saw it off.
The release of this briefing material — which has been available to the world for a long time as the Israeli Prime Minister released it to Canada’s PM in March — and to every world leader he has talked to since Sep 2007. Even early on Lebanon showed the Israeli dossier to Syria in 2007. This stuff in the CIA briefing is more media hype than news.
Maybe I’m just too naive compared to all the worldly viewers of these events…
I have not been following the news on North Korea’s nuclear reactor and North Korea’s efforts to sell its nuclear know-how, but I suspect there was a fairly long-list of good reasons for releasing this video. Here are just a few I can think of.
1. To prove to people that the Israelis were not just trigger-happy.
2. To prove to any sceptics still out there that Syria does not have peaceful intentions.
3. To show that President Bush has been right about North Korea all along.
4. To further discredit any remaining pro-North South Koreans.
5. To put pressure on China to put pressure on North Korea to come clean and make a deal.
6. To make it easier for North Korea to decide to confess its past sins and get the nuke deal done.
7. To reassure the American public and any baddies out there that US intelligence is still pretty good, so don’t try anything.
8. To send a signal to Iran.
9. To not waste a good presentation.
“As I was pretty much forced to admit, Bush II is in solid Legacy Mode, and is looking for a North Korea deal to mark it.”
Richardson, with regard to both Israel/Palestine and North Korea, this seems to be the case. However, considering that both of these legacy-building moves are likely to fail - as did Clinton’s own late-2nd term initiatives in these areas - they end up being the next president’s problem. I’m just wondering at what point no deal at all remains better than an imperfect one…
I agree the Bush administration is in full legacy mode but North Korea is not the issue that will be their legacy, it will be Iraq.
IMO the Bush Administration wants the North Korea sideshow to end so they can focus more on squaring away Iraq before the end of this presidency. That is why they were desperate for a deal with the Norks no matter how bad it was.
It was just that the deal that Chris Hill came up with was so bad that not even our Congress could hold their noses and agree to support it.
Did I read that right? The Bush administration thinks it can “square away Iraq” in less than a year? Good luck with that.
“2. To prove to any sceptics still out there that Syria does not have peaceful intentions.”
Mmm, so they had a nuclear reactor and one of their guys met a North Korea…Considering the fact that Syria and North Korea are both members of the G77 and the Non-aligned Movement, I’d say the evidence presented in he video is rather unconvincing.
Sonagi I didn’t say they would square away Iraq by the time they left office, I said they want to focus more on squaring away Iraq.
There is a long list of things that need to be accomplished in Iraq and they rather be spending their time and energy dealing with those before they leave office then dealing with the NK nuclear issue.
One Trackback
[...] WangKon936 asks, "So, is the Bush administration genuinely concerned about proliferation and North Korea, or is this a clumsy neocon plot?" The goal then, as now, is partisan, and not on improving the international regime, or even presenting a unified national position in a diplomatic negotiation. [...]